Originally published on April 23, 2018
This is the 17th article in the Profiles in Knowledge series featuring thought leaders in knowledge management. Bob Buckman is one of the very few corporate CEOs to directly champion knowledge management, write about it, and actively participate in KM professional organizations such as APQC.
Bob attended my presentation on communities at the APQC KM Conference in Houston last week. After the session, he was very complimentary about my work. I told him that when I tell stories of how executives can lead by example for knowledge management, I talk about how he would write notes to people in his company asking them “what knowledge have you shared with your colleagues today?” I was quite honored by Bob’s praise, as I consider him one of the great leaders in our field.
Section 1: Profiles
- Honorary Degrees from Asbury Theological Seminary, North Carolina State University, Furman University, Rhodes College and Christian Brothers University
- Interested in Knowledge Management and Knowledge Sharing, working in this area since 1984 within his own company and through teaching others around the world for over 30 years
- For recreation, likes to fly fish for trout and salmon. One of his favorite places is in Alaska at Rainbow King Lodge. In addition, fished in New Zealand, Chile, and in the US in Arkansas and Colorado
- Bob is one of the acknowledged ‘fathers of modern knowledge management’, an undisputed pioneer of ‘knowledge sharing’ and the winner of numerous prestigious ’KM’ Awards and Accolades during the 1990s. From 1977–2000 he was the Chief Executive of Buckman Laboratories, a highly successful global player in the specialty chemicals market, a period during which the company became renowned for its success in establishing effective knowledge sharing across its 1500+ workforce and its operations across over 80 countries around the world. Buckman Labs, which celebrated its 60th Anniversary in 2005, has itself won a veritable string of Awards including 8 prestigious ‘MAKE’ (Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise), three of these as acknowledged #1 knowledge sharing enterprise globally.
- Other Awards won by Bob include the Knowledge Management Leadership Award from Business Intelligence in London (1996), the Arthur Andersen LLP 1996 Enterprise Award for Best Practices in the category of Knowledge Sharing in the Organization; and the 1997 Computerworld Smithsonian Award for visionary use of information technology. In 2000 Bob was named as one of the top ten Most Admired Knowledge Leaders for world-class knowledge contributions to his company and to the emerging New Economies.
- Bob was President and Chairman of the Board of The Applied Knowledge Group, Inc., a professional services firm specializing in facilitating effective knowledge sharing within work organizations. He also served as Chairman of the Board of the holding company, Tioga Holdings, Inc., based in Reston, Virginia and as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Bulab Holdings, Inc, the ultimate holding company of Buckman Laboratories. Additionally, Bob is a Trustee of Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, and of Furman University, Greenville, SC. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Institute of Paper Science and Technology, Atlanta, GA, and APQC, Houston, TX.
- For 22 years Robert H. Buckman served as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Bulab Holdings, Inc. (the holding company of Buckman Laboratories in Memphis Tennessee) retiring in December 2000. He later served as Chairman of the Board of Tioga Holdings, Inc. and Applied Knowledge Group, Inc., both in Reston, Virginia.
- Buckman is a multinational, specialty chemical corporation which researches, develops, manufactures and markets chemical products for industrial use in the industries of pulp and paper, industrial water treatment, and leather. The company was founded in 1945 by Bob Buckman’s parents, Dr. and Mrs. Stanley Buckman. Buckman Laboratories now has plants and offices in 22 countries and is represented in many other countries through a network of carefully selected distributors. The corporation is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, and has approximately 1,400 associates worldwide.
- Mr. Buckman earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University in 1959, a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago in 1961, and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from North Carolina State University in 2001 and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Asbury Theological Seminary in 2003. After college he returned to Memphis to become involved in the family business, first as Assistant to the President, then as Secretary-Treasurer of the corporation, Vice Chairman, head of all operations in the Western Hemisphere outside the United States and most recently as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Bulab Holdings, Inc. from September 1978 until December 2000.
Section 2: Articles about Bob
1. KM’s father figure: Robert Buckman by Jeff Angus — “When you build that kind of company, you have to do it on a basis of trust or you create no value. If you hire the right people, 99.9 percent of them want to do the right thing. And when that’s the case, you don’t design systems on the basis of the 0.1 percent who don’t. Open systems make the smoke blowers obvious, and they soon disappear. The problem with so many organizations is they’ve become involved in command and control and they’re too afraid to be able to benefit. Chaos makes serendipity.”
2. 1999 Competitive Advantage Optimas Award Profile: Buckman Laboratories International, Inc. by Brenda Sunoo — It was known as The List, a weekly report that went straight to the top. Bob Buckman, CEO of Memphis-based Buckman Laboratories Inc., only wanted to know one thing: Which employees were not going online? To those whose names appeared, Buckman sent friendly messages (read “executive reminders”) through the internal network: “How’s your computer working?” “Have you been on vacation?” “Have you been sick?”
3. Knowledge Management Case Study: Buckman Laboratories by W. E. Fulmer, Harvard Business School Case Study 9–800–160. October 1, 1999.
Did Bob Create a Knowledge Processing Strategy to Match His Business Goals?
Bob Buckman did create a knowledge processing strategy to match his business goals. Bob realized that he was not selling chemicals; he was selling people and their problem solving expertise. Customer relationship management, the building and maintaining of customer relationships, was his main driving force. His organization ran intelligently because he invested in his human capital. He crossed the line of the traditional organizational structure by giving more power and responsibility to the people. The lines of the chains of command were distorted in order to create a more dynamic environment. Now, all employees could share their knowledge across the organization versus sending it down the branches of management. This innovative move saved time and money by getting the message straight on the table versus waiting for the information to flow down the levels of management. To motivate his employees to participate — Buckman gave out incentives for valuable knowledge sharing efforts.
Bob did more than just give more power to the people. Goals were set beyond the initial knowledge sharing efforts. Buckman Laboratories set sight on their goals and successfully conquered them. There were aggressive efforts to increase the sales force and the sales of products less than five years old. The initial goal of 25% of employees being in the sales force was greatly surpassed when it reached 65% in 1992. By the company adapting a 3M initiative to increase sales of products less than five years old, sales rose from an initial 14% to 33% with the implementation of K’Netix.
What Did Bob Do to Fill the Knowledge Gaps?
Bob wanted more than just a multinational language; he envisioned a global corporation. The initial efforts for the company’s code of ethics exemplified Buckman’s strong emphasis on efficient and effective knowledge sharing throughout the world. To unify corporation, a foundation had to be built to bring the parts together as a whole. There was a strong need for the organizational culture to be universal. The first line in the Mission Statement sums it up best –
“Because we are separated — by many miles, by diversity of cultures and language — we at Buckman need a clear understanding of the basic principles by which we will operate our company.”
The most crucial gaps in this customer-driven company were the knowledge sharing limitations due to real time and real place. At that point, the knowledge transmission process was costly and inefficient. Buckman realized his company’s weakness, which in turn, was the driving motivation behind a new knowledge transfer system. The system would be the key to getting the organization up to speed with its markets, products, and services. It would reduce the number of transmissions of knowledge to one, give everyone in the company access to the knowledge base, and allow each individual to contribute 24 hours / 7 days a week. In 1992, K’Netix was born and the Knowledge Transfer Department was developed to maintain this system.
What Kinds of Knowledge was Bob Interested in ‘Managing’?
Bob was interested in the conversion of tacit knowledge (sales force interactions with customers, company’s operations) to explicit knowledge (centralized depository where information is shared). K’Netix had been his answer for implementing this conversion. It had been created as easy to use as possible with around 80% of the workforce not having any technical background. This change was not initially accepted throughout the organization. In the beginning, the employees were not willing to trust this new system. The information being shared across the individuals, groups, and the organization brought need for a new management approach. The system was a significant change in culture — the employees had to embrace K’Netix for it to work. Once adapted, it did significantly foster the spread of knowledge across Buckman Laboratories.
Which Components of the Knowledge Life Cycle Do You See in Bob’s Attempt to Reform the Company?
Bob’s Knowledge Management movement covered almost all of the phases of the Knowledge Life Cycle. K’Netix was a real time knowledge production and knowledge validation environment in itself. Employees at all levels could formulate new organizational knowledge claims and review their peers’ claims. Sysops, the monitoring service for K’Netix, was hired for both the knowledge validation and the information acquisition phased. They censored the efficiency and effectiveness of the information being posted. They provided the most input for what organizational knowledge claims would move to the knowledge integration phase. The individual and group learning phase came during the development of the Learning Center.
Was the Buckman Labs Knowledge Management Effort a Success?
Buckman Labs knowledge management effort was a success. Every goal Bob set was accomplished. Every obstacle he encountered was addressed and ignited him to continuously improve his organization. He was relentless in his knowledge management efforts and although the results can not be accurately measured — great tangible results came from these efforts.
K’Netix was created and successfully adapted. His sales force increased far past his original goal. The sale of products less than five years old surpassed his original vision. Buckman Labs became an intelligently ran organization that valued its knowledge assets — information technology and human capital alike.
4. No Kidding, Cyberpunk Librarians! By Tom Peters
Buckman Labs, a $200 million (revenue) specialty chemical company based in Memphis, Tenn., has a market value that exceeds its hard-asset value by $175 million. CEO Bob Buckman suspects that sum comes from employee knowledge knocking around the system.
Pondering those figures led Buckman to an obsession with “520 connected brains available to work on any problem.” He juiced up spending on information technology, and in mid-1992 shifted all information activities to an aptly titled Knowledge Transfer Department. It aims to “provide easy and rapid access to Buckman Laboratories’ global knowledge bases and eliminate time and space constraints on communications.”
Buckman makes it clear that only those who get with the new program will succeed. “The most powerful individuals in the future of Buckman Labs,” he says, “will be those that do the best job of transferring knowledge to others.”
5. Bob Buckman on Knowledge Management Systems by Chris McGrath
- One transfer step in the transmission of ideas between individuals, to avoid distortion.
- All employees have access.
- All employees can contribute content.
- Available anywhere, 24/7.
- Search function that indexes every word.
- Users contribute in their native language. Translation provided where appropriate.
- Content updates automatically.
6. Buckman Labs Is Nothing but Net by Glenn Rifkin
Buckman Labs makes chemicals — but it sells knowledge. The challenge: invent a way for the global salesforce to spend more time with customers and share its brainpower.
Buckman and his people began treating knowledge as their most critical corporate asset in 1992. As a result, Buckman Labs has become a Mecca for other companies looking for “how-to” lessons in the art and science of knowledge management.
“You can’t really understand the transformation that has happened until you come in here,” drawls Bob Buckman, the company’s 58-year-old CEO and resident knowledge visionary.
“The customer is most important,” he barks, sounding more like a southern football coach giving a half-time chalk-talk than a CEO. He draws an inverted pyramid with the customer at the top. “We need to be effectively engaged on the front line, actively involved in satisfying the needs of our customers.”
“We need to cut the umbilical cord,” he continues — a reference to the mainframe mentality that kept people tied to the office. Buckman rattles off the numbers. “If you work a 40-hour week, you’re in the office less than 25% of your time. If you travel 40% of the workweek, you’re in the office less than 15% of your time. And if you’re a salesperson, you’re in the office 0% of your time.”
Part techno-visionary, part hard-nosed businessman, Bob Buckman poses the challenge of competition in the knowledge-intensive ’90s: Close the gap with the customer. Stay in touch with each other. Bring all of the company’s brainpower to bear in serving each customer. “The real questions are,” says Buckman, “How do we stay connected? How do we share knowledge? How do we function anytime, anywhere — no matter what?”
The answer that Bob Buckman came up with was the knowledge network — K’Netix.
It came to him eight years ago, when he was flat on his back, confined to bed after rupturing his back. Unable to get up, unable even to sit up, Buckman propped a laptop computer on his belly and took dead aim on the real power of knowledge.
“Lying there thinking how isolated I was,” says Buckman, recalling his two weeks in bed. “I got to thinking about what I wanted.”
What he wanted was information, not just for himself but for all his people, a steady stream of information about products, markets, customers. And he wanted it to be easily accessible, easily shared. A relentless student of business and management writing, he had recently read a comment from Jan Carlzon, the former head of SAS, and it had struck a chord with him: “An individual without information cannot take responsibility; an individual who is given information cannot help but take responsibility.”
“If you can’t maximize the power of the individual, you haven’t done anything,” Buckman thought. “The basic philosophy is, How do we take this individual and make him bigger, give him power? How? Connect him to the world.”
On his laptop, Buckman wrote his ideal knowledge transfer system:
- It would make it possible for people to talk to each other directly, to minimize distortion.
- It would give everyone access to the company’s knowledge base.
- It would allow each individual in the company to enter knowledge into the system.
- It would be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- It would be easy to use.
- It would communicate in whatever language is best for the user.
- It would be updated automatically, capturing questions and answers as a future knowledge base.
Such a system, he realized, would mean a cultural transformation. It would mean turning the company upside down.
Which was precisely what he wanted to do — and had wanted to do since 1961 when he’d joined the company his father had founded. With a degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from the University of Chicago, Buckman had long been fascinated by organizational dynamics and the potential for change that computers had created.
…
From Bob Buckman’s vantage point, it is impossible to put a dollar figure on the value of the knowledge network. It is simply fundamental to the way the company does business, intrinsic to its operation and embedded as an expression of the company’s value system. Looking back, Buckman says that incorporating the knowledge transfer system into a corporate culture is at least a three-year process. “The first year they think you’re crazy. The second year they start to see, and in the third year you get buy-in,” says Buckman. “What you need is persistence. This whole thing is a journey.”
- “We should use our systems for communication to share our tacit and explicit knowledge as widely as possible so that no individual will stand alone in the face of competition, but will always have the full global force of the company behind them.”
- Ex CEO, Bob Buckman, routinely sent personal communications to employees demonstrating a low level of knowledge-sharing: he would ask if they were experiencing problems or required training and asked what help the leadership could offer.
- “[Our focus has been ] 90% culture change and 10% technology change. Technology is the easy part… the focus needs to be on culture change and how to shift to a networked communication model”
- “The higher one can carry that value system and get people to trust each other, the higher and deeper you can carry knowledge sharing.”
- An associate is not considered for promotion unless there are active in their knowledge sharing. “What other incentive do they need?”
- Buckman Laboratories do not believe in having taxonomies because they need information at speed and believe tagging data is time consuming and lacks consistency. “[we] do not want to wait for a good piece of information to become available just because we are waiting for someone to code it, we can’t afford to wait that long”
- “If there is no need for what you are doing in the organization (technology), then it will not be successful”
- “Use simple tools in imaginative ways with a higher purpose in mind”
8. Knowledge Management from a Socio-Technical Perspective: A Case Study of Buckman Laboratories by Shan L Pan and Harry Scarbrough
In 1989, Bob Buckman made a personal pledge that knowledge would become the foundation of his company’s competitive edge. Three years later, the implementation of the K’Netix® knowledge network marked the realization of Buckman Laboratories’ vision.
Top management were clearly proactive in changing culture within the organization. According to Bob Buckman; “What happens in Buckman is 90% cultural change. After the K’Netix system was put in place, a new organizational culture change seemed essential. The culture that Buckman created began with a process of “re-learning”. Under a new paradigm of organizational culture, Buckman believed strongly that employees who shared their knowledge would be the most influential and would be sought by others within the company.
Bob Buckman recognized trust as one of the company’s core values. “For knowledge-sharing to become a reality, you have to create a climate of trust in your organization. You cannot empower someone that you do not trust and who does not trust you.” A code of ethics that values the individual is solidly at the core of the learning mindset. In addition, Buckman constantly reinforces the points that provide knowledge to the customer service. The aim is to deploy knowledge at the point of sale for the benefit of the customer. “We need to invest in knowledge sharing like any other investment that will redefine an organization”. Indeed, many associates at Buckman Laboratories credit him with the foresight to have managers “thinking ahead five to ten years rather than 60 days”
Section 3: APQC
1. Interview by Carla O’Dell as part of the “Big Thinkers, Big Ideas” series
2. Knowledge Management at Buckman
3. APQC KM & Innovation 2007 — A Conversation with Bob Buckman from Buckman Laboratories by Luis Suarez — Bob shared one of the best quotes I have heard, read, seen ever on what Knowledge Sharing is all about: “Don’t be afraid to share what you know, because you know it better than anyone else!”
4. Do People Trust Your KM Program?
Buckman held face-to-face meetings around the globe where people shared what was important to them, and he invited every employee. When the final set of shared principles came out, everyone could say, “I see myself in that. They asked me.” Bob says, “That’s what I see as missing in most KM operations today. They don’t go through the effort to build a value system for sharing knowledge. They don’t create a system where everybody is comfortable buying into the values.”
The values, which focus on treating others with dignity and respect, have been integrated into the company’s code of ethics and have become a foundation for closer global collaboration. They include:
- That the company is made up of individuals — each of whom has different capabilities and potentials — all of which are necessary to the success of Buckman.
- That we acknowledge that individuality by treating each other with dignity and respect — striving to maintain continuous and positive communications among all of us.
- That we recognize and reward the contributions and accomplishments of our associates.
- That we continually work to improve our teaming skills because we recognize that effective teamwork is essential to fulfilling our purpose.
- That we continually strive to learn both as an organization and as individuals so that we are positioned to create value.
5. Why KM Is More Fun Than Restructuring
The Knowledge that resides in the heads of your people is the most dynamic asset that you have. It is always changing, always growing in both quantity and quality. A key question is how should it move to satisfy the needs of the organization? Because it is this dynamic movement that results in new value creation.
In a typical Command and Control Structure knowledge moves up and down the organization in a sequential manner from one person to another. But this movement creates its own problems.
Knowledge deteriorates as it moves through different individuals in a sequential manner. Information is gathered on the front line, passed to some manager so that he can put his perception on the situation and so forth up the line, going from inbox to inbox until it gets to some guru somewhere, who puts his infinite wisdom on the situation and sends it back to the front line. No wonder there is confusion. In addition, this sequential communication model is a very slow process. While we cannot eliminate the command and control management structure in most organizations, we can poke holes in the silos and establish a networked model of collaboration.
Section 4: AOK Star Series, January 2003 — Preparing for Conversations with Bob Buckman: Road from Command and Control to Knowledge Sharing
Introduction
We are fortunate to have with us in the January 2003 session of the STAR Series Dialogues, Bob Buckman, whose personal business philosophies and leadership played a major role in bringing credibility to what would eventually be known as Knowledge Management.
Buckman Laboratories has been a leading manufacturer of specialty chemicals for aqueous industrial systems and other more recent for over 50 years. In 1978, at the age of 69, founder and CEO Dr. Stanley Buckman died of a heart attack in his office. His son, Robert (Bob), who had joined the company in 1961 after earning a degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University and a MBA from the University of Chicago, became the new chairman and CEO.
Founded in 1945, the company, from its beginning, emphasized its abilities to create and manufacture innovative and unique solutions for the control of the growth of microorganisms in customer processes.
During the decade of the 1950s, the company’s customer base expanded to include the leather, paint, sugar processing, agriculture, paint, coatings and plastics industries. In the 1960s new manufacturing and sales companies were formed in Mexico and Belgium. This expansion was followed in the 1970s with the opening of sales and manufacturing companies in South Africa and Brazil and a sales company in Australia. New products were introduced for water treatment, ranging from swimming pools to fresh water, and a new international headquarters housing all corporate activities, including Research and Development, were built in Memphis, Tennessee, US.
The timing of Bob’s assumption of leadership at Buckman was fortuitous, because it came as business enterprise was to begin a revolutionary transition from the Industrial Age to the Knowledge Age. From the beginning of his leadership, Bob wanted to change the way the company operated. As he put it, “We were getting our lunch eaten. We were a multinational organization and needed to be a global organization.”
He also wanted to change the management style of the organization. “I knew I didn’t want to do it Dad’s way. Every single business decision had to be approved by my father. I thought, this is too much work.” Even though the company had adopted the slogan “Creativity For Our Customers” in the 1960s, Bob was convinced that the company was too product-driven. The company now sought to become “customer-driven.”
This shift reflected Bob’s belief that “cash flow is generated on the front line with customers, by associates who have built relationships of continuity and trust, face to face with the customer, one individual with another, over a significant length of time.”
Today, Bob Buckman has turned the helm of Buckman Laboratories to another family member, but is far from retired. He travels the world sharing his knowledge about knowledge enterprise. That’s what he will be doing during his two weeks — January 20–31 — in the STAR Series Dialogues.
Case Studies
Bob Buckman is not a preacher of favorite theories. He is a practical man with practical experience based on his own personal philosophies and experience which happen to be very like those of KM theorists and practitioners. Accordingly, Bob has declined to pick a “favorite topic” or thread to begin our Conversations. He wants the members to pick.
But here are three Harvard case studies that should get the conversation going.
1. Virtual Teaming Using Buckman’s K’Netix
If you can’t maximize the power of the individual, you haven’t done anything. If you expand the ability of individual members of the organization, you expand the ability of the organization.
— Bob Buckman
A major Buckman customer in Australia announced plans to commission a new alkaline fine paper machine in 1998. Not only was it always attractive to get “start-up” business but this particular machine tended to use more chemicals than most paper machines. In addition, the customer’s tender was broken into two areas machine hygiene and retention and they wanted one company to provide both. Buckman was a world leader in the area of machine hygiene but had no experience with alkaline fine paper. In fact, the on site person in Australia was young and only had a few years of general experience.
Furthermore, Buckman was not a dominant player anywhere in the world in retention, especially for alkaline fine paper machines. Peter Lennon, national sales manager for Australia, and Maria Conte, Area Sales Manager, knew that unlike all of their competitors they could not put together a physical team to work on the proposal so they decided to try a “virtual” global team. Maria sent out a call via K’Netix the Buckman Knowledge Network for help answering very specific questions. She received responses from more than 30 associates worldwide. From that group a team of 10 people from Asia, Africa and North America (U.S. and Canada) agreed to commit to the project on a continuous basis.
Buckman won the contract.
Bob Buckman considered K’Netix to be “the greatest revolution in the way of doing business we have seen in our lifetime.” He attributed much of the company’s 250% sales growth (over $300 million in 1998) in the past decade and high percentage of sales from products less than five years old (34%+) to knowledge sharing. $7,500 per person per year to implement K’Netix was a significant investment for a company the size of Buckman Laboratories. Yet, over the past five years the company had been able to keep net income in the 3 to 6% range, operating income from 7 to 10.5% and gross profits from 52 to 55%, in spite of worldwide currency fluctuations.
By early 1999, however, there were growing financial pressures. In the words of one Buckman executive, “our three target industries are in the tank.” With price pressures in all market segments some executives were starting to question whether the value Buckman Laboratories added with K’Netix made sense. According to one, “Is it ill timed?”
2. Culture, Language = Multiple Forums
As we have eliminated the technical barriers to communication and the sharing of the tacit knowledge of the company across time and space, we have run square up against the cultural barriers to this process. That has resulted in multiple forums.
I understand the frustration of some of our associates about the time it takes to keep up with multiple forums. This is particularly true now that the volume of sharing has increased. However, we have to keep in mind what is important. It is not convenience or some grand scheme to have one world, but the sharing of the tacit knowledge of the organization across time and space that is important. We have to continually look for ways to improve this process. To do this, we have to address the cultural barriers to communication across time and space.
We have had as one of our (desired) characteristics of an ideal system for a long time now, the free flow of ideas unrestricted by language. Each individual would use the language of their choice and anything received by them would be in that language. Also anything sent to someone else in the organization would be received by that other associate in their language.
We do not have such a system yet, but we would like one. It is not as simple as saying everything should be in English, because a majority of our associates have this as their primary language. That works for us in the US, but does not work for the rest of our associates. If you want to understand what it is like to communicate in another language, then visit the Foro Latino and try and share your innermost thoughts on a technical question. The fact that someone can speak English to some degree does not make for good written communication.
We have to recognize that this is a barrier that we have not been able to cross. We have not forgotten about it, though. We are working on it. How do you encourage communication across a diverse group of associates?
3. Virtual Trust with Customers
One element of Buckman Laboratories’ new strategy of customer intimacy was to explore more aggressively the potential contained within its’ customer forums. One idea was to allow a specific customer’s employees worldwide to communicate among themselves and with those Buckman associates with whom they interacted.
Each company would be allocated one section, with both parties responsible for nominating those of their respective associates who could have access to the section. Associated with each customer section would be a related “Buckman only” section where those Buckman associates who interacted with the customer could discuss some things privately.
Bob Buckman hoped to build “virtual trust” not only with employees but customers. In his view “the climate of trust that fosters proactive knowledge sharing within the company is the same climate that we want to create with our customers.” Everyone recognized that it would be a big challenge to get some customers involved in the new way. According to one associate, “Customers are scared of security and losing trade secrets. Their own mills don’t even talk to each other.”
Section 5: Article and Panel
- Knowledge Sharing at Buckman Laboratories — The specialty chemical maker’s CEO explains how his firm became a leader in managing knowledge
- KMWorld 2011 Keynote: KM for the Future: Pioneers’ Perspectives
Section 6: Presentations
Section 7: Videos
Section 8: Books
- Next Generation Knowledge Management, Volume 2 by Jerry Ash — Chapter 2: Road from command and control to knowledge sharing
Appendix: Knowledge Nurture — Buckman’s website for Knowledge Sharing, developed and maintained by Melissie Rumizen
Our goal is to establish a resource to help people learn about knowledge sharing. Our audience is not only our customers and our associates within Buckman Laboratories, but also the worldwide knowledge management community — practitioners, newcomers, academics, students, and thinkers.
- Getting Started: A beginner’s reference for learning about knowledge management
- Buckman awards and recognition
- Buckman Resources: Papers, articles, and presentations written by or about Buckman Laboratories
- References: A library of articles, websites and tools
1. Getting Started: A beginner’s reference for learning about knowledge management
Definitions
- “Knowledge is information that is relevant, actionable, and at least partially based on experience.” Dorothy Leonard
- “Knowledge management is strategy and processes to enable the creation and flow of relevant knowledge throughout the business to create organizational, customer, and consumer value.” David Smith, Unilever
- “Knowledge can mean information, awareness, knowing, cognition, sapience, cognizance, science, experience, skill, insight, competence, know-how, practical ability, capability, learning, wisdom, certainty, and so on. The definition depends on the context in which the term is used.” Karl Erik Sveiby, The New Organizational Wealth
- “Knowledge is content in context to produce an actionable understanding.” Dr. Robert Bauer, Xerox Parc
- For straightforward definitions of knowledge management and other key terms, read the article Defining Knowledge Management by Steve Barth.
Books / Articles
- Building a Knowledge-Driven Organization by Robert H. Buckman
- The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Knowledge Management by Melissie Rumizen of Buckman Laboratories
- The New Organizational Wealth by Karl Erik Sveiby
- Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know by Thomas Davenport and Laurence Prusak
- A Delightful Dozen of Knowledge Management Principles by Verna Allee
- What is Knowledge Management? By Karl Erik Sveiby
2. Buckman awards and recognition
- 2009 Ranked 42nd in Training Magazine’s Top 125 training organizations (USA and international)
- 2008 Ranked 63rd in Training Magazine’s Top 125 training organizations (USA and international)
- 2007 Ranked 88th in Training Magazine’s Top 125 training organizations (USA and international)
- 2007 Ranked 88th in Training Magazine’s Top 125 training organizations (USA and international)
- 2006 Nominated a Best Practice Partner by American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) for their contributions to “Leveraging Knowledge Across The Value Chain”
- 2006 Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) Award winner
- 2006 Training Magazine recognized Buckman as one of the top 100 training organizations in the USA
- 2005 North American MAKE Award winner
- 2004 Awarded the prestigious US Environmental Protection Agency Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award for Buckman’s Optimyze® enzyme chemistry
- 2004 Recognized by Training Magazine as one of the top 100 training organizations in the USA
- 2004 Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) Award winner
- 2003 Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) Award winner
- 2003 Recognized by Training Magazine as one of the top 100 training organizations in the USA.
- 2002 Recognized by Training Magazine as one of the top 100 training organizations in the USA
- 2002 Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) Award winner. Buckman was one of the “Global Hall of Fame” members (all of whom have been placed in the Teleos Top Ten for all five years of the survey’s existence).
- 2001 Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) Award winner.
- 2001 Recognized by Training Magazine as one of the top 50 training organizations in the USA.
- 2000 Article on Buckman Laboratories in Business Week, Oct 23, “Spread the Know-how”.
- 2000 Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE) Award winner
- 2000 Bob Buckman named by Teleos and Work Frontiers International as one of the ten Most Admired Knowledge Leaders for world-class knowledge leadership contributions to the Buckman company and to the ‘new economy’
- 1999 Received the Workforce Optima Award in the area of competitive advantage
- 1999 Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE) Award winner
- 1999 Selected by the American Productivity and Quality Center as a Best Practice Partner for a consortium study on Successfully Implementing Knowledge Management.
- 1998 The Bulab Learning Center chosen as a Best Practice Partner by the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) for a benchmarking study on Technology Based Training — Global Strategies for Learning
- 1998 Bob Buckman named a Distinguished Delphi Fellow; Buckman Laboratories recognized for its leadership in building knowledge communities
- 1997 Buckman Laboratories won the Smithsonian Computerworld Award for innovative applications of technology in the Manufacturing category.
- 1997 Buckman Laboratories Case Study featured in the 1997 American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) Benchmarking Study on the Use of Information Technology to Support Knowledge Management
- 1996 Bob Buckman received the Business Intelligence Knowledge Management Leadership Award
- 1996 BL received the Arthur Andersen Enterprise award for sharing knowledge in the organization
3. Buckman Resources: Papers, articles, and presentations written by or about Buckman Laboratories
Culture — Collaboration — Innovation
- KM Asia 2007
- Presented by Robert H. Buckman
Taking Knowledge Sharing to the Next Level
- Keynote speech at ICKM Conference — August 1, 2006
- Presented by Kathy Buckman Gibson
Buckman Laboratories Knowledge Sharing: Past, Present and Future
- Masterclass at ICKM Conference — July 31, 2006
- Presented by John Burrows and Kathy Buckman Gibson
Buckman Laboratories: Leveraging Organizational Knowledge
Buckman Laboratories Learning Center
- Author: Sheldon Ellis
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in March 1998
- Download article
Buckman Laboratories: Customer Case Study
Building a Knowledge-driven Organization
- Author: Robert H. Buckman
- Published by McGraw Hill in 2004
Case Study: Buckman Laboratories and KM
- Author: Melisie Rumizen
- Published by Inside Knowledge Magazine on October 1, 2003
Creating a Collaborative Environment: The Human Element
- Author: Cheryl Lamb
- Published in 2001
- Download article
Leader of the Pack
- Author: Melissie Rumizen
- Published in Knowledge Management Magazine, 2003
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Knowledge Management
- Author: Melissie Clemmons Rumizen
- Published by CWL Publishing Enterprises in 2002
- ISBN 0028641779
The Knowledge: Melissie Rumizen
The Evolution of Information Technology at Buckman Laboratories
- Author: Tim Meek
- Published by Melcrum in 1999
- Download article
The Evolution of KM at Buckman Laboratories
- Authors: Melissie Rumizen, Sheldon Ellis
- Published by Knowledge Management Review in 2002
- Download article
The Innovators
- Published in Paper 360º, January 2007
4. References: A library of articles, websites and tools
- Note: the sections below (in all caps) are linked to in the left menu of “Benchmarking” and all other section pages.
BENCHMARKING
Business Process Benchmarking: Finding and Implementing Best Practices
- Author: Robert C. Camp
- Published by ASQC Quality Press in 1995
- ISBN 0873892968
Benchmarking: The Search for Industry Best Practices that Lead to Superior Performance
- Author: Robert C. Camp
- Published by Quality Resources and ASQC Quality Press in 1989
- ISBN 0873890582
Benchmarking for Best Practices: Winning through Innovative Adaptation
- Authors: Christopher Bogan, Michael English
- Published by McGraw Hill Companies in 1996
- ISBN 0070063753
Knowledge sharing: moving away from the obsession with best practices
- Author: Peter Holdt Christensen
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 11 №1 2007
Learning to Fly
- Authors: Chris Collison and Geoff Parcell
- Published by: Oxford: Capstone Publishing, 2004
- ISBN-13: 9781841125091
BUCKMAN IN PRINT
Buckman Laboratories Learning Center
- Author: Sheldon Ellis
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in March 1998
- Download article
Buckman Laboratories: Customer Case Study
Building a Knowledge-driven Organization
- Author: Robert H. Buckman
- Published by McGraw Hill in 2004
Case Study: Buckman Laboratories and KM — Leader of the Pack
- Author: Melisie Rumizen
- Published by Inside Knowledge Magazine on October 1, 2003
Creating a Collaborative Environment: The Human Element
- Author: Cheryl Lamb
- Published in 2001
- Download article
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Knowledge Management
- Author: Melissie Clemmons Rumizen
- Published by CWL Publishing Enterprises in 2002
- ISBN 0028641779
The Knowledge: Melissie Rumizen
The Evolution of Information Technology at Buckman Laboratories
- Author: Tim Meek
- Published by Melcrum in 1999
- KM Review
- Download article
The Evolution of KM at Buckman Laboratories
- Authors: Melissie Rumizen, Sheldon Ellis
- Published by Knowledge Management Review in 2002
- Download article
The Innovators
- Published in Paper 360°, January 2007
COLLABORATION
Annotation for Knowledge Sharing in a Collaborative Environment
- Author: Charles Abiodun Robert
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 13 №1 2009
Assessing KM Technology Choices
- Authors: Jeff Stemke, Melissie Rumizen
- Published by Knowledge Management Review in 2001
Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams
- Authors: Lynda Gratton and Tamara J. Erickson
- Published by Harvard Business Review, November 2007
Fusing Learning and Knowledge at the St. Paul Companies
- Authors: Erick Thompson, David Owens
- Published by Knowledge Management Review in 2001
Living Networks
- Author: Ross Dawson
- Book
Mastering Virtual Teams: Strategies, Tools and Techniques That Succeed
- Authors: Deborah Duarte, Nancy Snyder
- Published by Jossey-Bass in 2000
- ISBN 0787955892
Seven Basic Concepts of Design for Creating Collaborative Spaces
- Authors: Bryan Coffman, James Smethurst, Michael Kaufman
- Published by Sente Company
The Future of Knowledge
- Author: Verna Allee
- Published by Butterworth Heinemann in 2002
- Verna Allee’s website
The Secrets of Great Groups
- Author: Warren Bennis
- Published by Leader to Leader in Winter 1997
Trust and Betrayal in the Workplace
- Authors: Dennis Reina, Michelle Reina
- Published by Barrett Koehler in 1999
- ISBN 1576750701
Wikinomics — How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
- Authors: Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams
- Published by the Penguin Group in 2006
- ISBN 9781591841388
COMMUNITIES
A Systematic Framework for Analysing the Critical Success Factors of Communities of Practice
- Authors: Enrico Scarso, Ettore Bollsani, Luigi Salvador
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 13 №6 2009
An integrative model for knowledge sharing in communities-of-practice
- Authors: Suhwan Jeon, Young-Gui Kim, Joon Koh
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 15 №2 2011
Antecedents of Knowledge Sharing in Communities of Practice
- Author: Katja Zboralski
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 13 №3 2009
Balancing Act: How to Capture Knowledge Without Killing It
- Authors: John Seely Brown, Paul Dugid
- Published by Harvard Business Review in 2000
Building Trust in an Online Community
- Author: Steve Barth
- Published by Knowledge Management in 2001
Communities of Practice: A Model for Their Cultivation
- Authors: Edurne Loyarte and Olga Rivera
- Published by: Journal of Knowledge Management in 2007
Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier
- Authors: Etienne Wenger, William Snyder
- Published by Harvard Business Review in 2000
Communities of Practice
- Author: Etienne Wenger
- Published by Cambridge University Press in 1998
- ISBN 0521430178
Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities
- Author: Amy Jo Kim
- ISBN 0201874849
Creating communities of practice: scoping purposeful design
- Authors: Ben Iaquinto, Ray Ison, and Robert Faggian
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 15 №1 2011
Cultivating Communities of Practice
- Authors: Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, Bill Snyder
- Published by Harvard Business School Press in 2002
- ISBN 1578513308
Designing and Managing Business Communities of Practice
- Authors: Mariano Corso, Andrea Giacobbe and Antonella Martini
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 13 №3 2009
Enabling Knowledge Creation
- Authors: Georg von Krogh, Kazuo Ichijo, Ikujiro Nonaka
- Published by Oxford University Press in 2000
- ISBN 0195126165
Learning Ecology, Communities, and Networks
- Author: George Siemens
- Published by Elearnspace in 2003
Learning to Fly
- Authors: Chris Collison, Geoff Parcell
- ISBN 184112124X
Leveraging Communities of Practice for Strategic Advantage
- Authors: Hubert Saint-Onge, Debra Wallace
- Published in 2002
- ISBN 075067458X
Measuring Connectivity at Aventis Pharmaceuticals
- Author: Doug Rush
- Published by Knowledge Management Review in 2002
Online Community Builders Purpose Checklist
- Author: Nancy White
- Author: Nancy White
Participation in intra-firm communities of practice: a case study from the automotive industry
- Authors: Patricia Wolf, Sebastian Späth, Stefan Haefiliger
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 15 №1 2011
The Future of Knowledge
- Author: Verna Allee
- Published by Butterworth Heinemann in 2002
The People are the Company
- Authors: John Seely Brown, Estee Solomon Gray
- Published by Fast Company on January 11, 1993
Top Management Sponsorship to Guide Communities of Practice
- Author: Stefano Borzillo
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 13 №3 2009
COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE
Business Intelligence: The Intelligent Customer
- Author: Susan Osterfelt
- Published by DM Review in 2000
CI Basics
Competitive Intelligence
- Author Len Grzanka
- Published by Knowledge Management Magazine in April 1999
Competitive Intelligence: From Back Ops to Boardrooms — How Businesses Gather, Analyze, and Use Information to Succeed in the Global Marketplace
- Author: Larry Kahaner
- Published by Simon and Schuster in 1996
- ISBN 0684810743
The Internet Age of Competitive Intelligence
- Authors: John McGonagle, Carolyn Vella
- Published by Quorum Books in 1999
- ISBN 1567202047
The New Competitor Intelligence: The Complete Resource for Finding, Analyzing, and Using Information about Your Competitors
- Author: Leonard M. Fuld
- Published by John Wiley & Sons in 1995
- ISBN 0471585092
Website for the Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals
CULTURAL CHANGE
Breaking the Code of Change
- Edited by: Michael Beer, Nitin Nohria
- Published by Harvard Business School Press in 2001
- ISBN 1578513316
Change Without Pain: How Managers Can Overcome Initiative Overload, Organizational Chaos, and Employee Burnout
- Author: Eric Abrahamson
- Published by Harvard Business School Press in December 2003
Cultural and Social Issues for Knowledge Sharing
- Author: Franz Barachini
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 13 №1 2009
Change Without Pain: The Road to Recombination
- Author: Lauren Keller Johnson
- Published by Harvard Management Update in February 2004
Control Your Own Destiny or Someone Else Will
- Authors: Noel Tichy, Stratford Sherman
- Published by Harper Business in 1994
- ISBN 0887306705
Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life
- Authors: Terrence Deal, Allan Kennedy
- Published by Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. in 1982
- ISBN 0201102773
Enabling Knowledge Creation
- Authors: Georg von Krogh, Kazuo Ichijo, Ikujiro Nonaka
- Published by Oxford University Press in 2000
- ISBN 0195126165
Leading Transition: A New Model For Change
- Authors: William Bridges, Susan Mitchell Bridges
- Published by Leader to Leader in 2000
Living Networks
- Author: Ross Dawson
- Book
Managing at the Speed of Change
- Author: Daryl R. Conner
- Published by Villard Books in 1993
- ISBN 0679406840
Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change
- Author: William Bridges
- Published by Perseus Books in 1991
- ISBN 0201550733
Motivation, Incentives, and Organisational Culture
- Author: Patricia Milne
- Published by: Journal of Knowledge Management in 2007
Organizational culture and knowledge creation capability
- Authors: Dong Wang, Zhongfeng Su, Dongtao Yang
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 15 №3 2011
Organizational culture impact on knowledge exchange: Saudi Telecom context
- Authors: Raid. M. Al-Adaileh and Muawad S. Al-Atawi
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 15 №2 2011
Organisational culture’s influence on tacit knowledge-sharing behavior
- Visvalingam Suppiah and Manjit Singh Sandhu
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 15 №3 2011
Organizational culture and knowledge sharing: critical success factors
- Authors: Adel Ismail Al-Alawi, Nayla Yousif Al-Marzooqi and Yasmeen Fraidoon Mohammed
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 11 №2, 2007
Organizational Transitions
- Authors: Richard Beckhard, Reuben T. Harris
- Published by Addison Wesley in 1987
- ISBN 0201108879
Questioning the Conventional Wisdom: Culture-Knowledge Management Relationships
- Author: William R. King
- Published by: Journal of Knowledge Management — Vol. 12 №3, 2008
Shaping Knowledge Management: Organization and National Culture
- Authors: Rémy Magnier-Watanabe, Dai Senoo
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 14 №2 2010
Storytelling in Organizations
- Authors: Steve Denning, John Seely Brown, Larry Prusak, Kataline Groh
- Published by Elsevier in June 2004
The Corporate Culture Survival Guide
- Author: Edgar Schein
- Published by Jossey Bass in 1999
- ISBN 0787946990
The Correlation Between Organizational Culture and Knowledge Conversion on Corporate Performance
- Author: Shu-Mei Tseng
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 14 №2 2010
The Dance of Change
- Authors: Peter Senge, Charlotte Roberts, George Roth, Rick Ross
- Published by Doubleday in 1999
The Future of Knowledge
- Author: Verna Allee
- Published by Butterworth Heinemann in 2002
The Impact of National Cultures on Structured Knowledge Transfer
- Authors: Jihong Chen, Peter Y. T. Sun, Robert J. McQueen
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 14 №2 2010
The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative
- Author: Steve Denning
- Published by Jossey Bass in April 2005
The New Corporate Cultures
- Authors: Terrance Deal, Allan Kennedy
- Published by Perseus Books in 1999
- ISBN 0738200697
The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations
- Author: Steve Denning
- Published by Butterworth Heinemann in 2000
- ISBN 0750673559
Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performances and Results from Knowledge Workers
- Author: Thomas H. Davenport
- Published by Harvard Business School Press in 2005
- ISBN 1591394236
Trust and Betrayal in the Workplace
- Authors: Dennis Reina, Michelle Reina
- Published by Barrett Koehler in 1999
- ISBN 1576750701
Uncovering Cultural Perceptions and Barriers During Knowledge Audit
- Authors: Meira Levy, Irit Hadar, Steven Greenspan, Ethan Hadar
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 14 №1 2010
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Buckman Laboratories Learning Center
- Author: Sheldon Ellis
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in March 1998
- Download article
Buckman Laboratories: Customer Case Study
- Authored by Click2Learn
- Published by Click2Learn in 1999
- Download article
Cisco’s Quick Study
- Author: Anne Muoio
- Published by Fast Company in October 2000
E-learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age
- Author: Marc Rosenberg
- ISBN 0071362681
Fusing Learning and Knowledge at the St. Paul Companies
- Authors: Erick Thompson, David Owent
- Published By Knowledge Management Review in 2001
The impact of knowledge sharing on organizational learning and effectiveness
- Author: Jen-te Yang
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 11 №2, 2007
Reinventing Training
- Author: Marc J. Rosenberg
Website for the American Society for Training and Development
GENERAL
Capturing Value from Knowledge Assets
- Author: David J. Tecce
- Published by California Management Review in Spring 1998
Case Study: Xerox Corporation
- Authored by Knowledge Board
- Published in 2003
Complete Idiot’s Guide to Knowledge Management
- Author: Melissie Clemmons Rumizen
- Published by Alpha Books in 2001
- ISBN 0028641779
- Author: Steve Barth
Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships
- Author: Ross Dawson
- Published by Butterworth Heinemann in 2000
- ISBN 0705671858
Don’t Ask…Don’t Know
- Author: William F. Hauserman
- Published in Paper 360°, February 2007
Journal of Knowledge Management
Knowledge and Knowledge Management
Knowledge Management Review
- Published by Melcrum Publishing
- KM Review
Knowledge Management
- Author: Hubert Saint Onge
- Toolkit
Learning From Mistakes
- Author: Steve Barth
- Published by Knowledge Management Magazine in 2001
Peter Drucker on the Profession of Management
- Author: Peter Drucker
- Published by Harvard Business School Press in 1998
- ISBN 0875848362
Reconfiguring the Value Network
- Author: Verna Allee
- Published by Journal of Business Strategy in 2000
Sharing Leads to Abundance
- Author: Don Tapscott
- Published in 2003
Tempering Knowledge
- Author: Madanmohan Rao
- Published in 2002
The Coming of the New Organization
- Author: Peter Drucker
- Published by Harvard Business Review in Jan/Feb 1988
The Future of Knowledge
- Author: Verna Allee
- Published by Butterworth Heinemann in 2002
The Knowledge-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action
- Authors: Jeffrey Pfeffer, Robert I. Sutton
- Published by Harvard Business School in 1999
- ISBN 1578511240
The Knowledge Creating Company
- Authors: Ikujiro Nonaka, Hirotaka Takeuchi
- Published by Oxford University Press in 1995
- ISBN 0195092694
- Download article
The Knowledge Evolution: Building Organizational Intelligence
- Author: Verna Allee
- Published by Butterworth Heinemann in 1997
- ISBN 075069842X
The Knowledge in Knowledge Management
- Author: Fred Nickols
- Published in 2000
- The Knowledge in Knowledge Management
The New Organizational Wealth: Managing & Measuring Knowledge-Based Assets
- Author: Karl Erik Sveiby
- Published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers in 1997
- ISBN 1576750140
- Download article
The New Productivity Challenge
- Author: Peter Drucker
- Published by Harvard Business Review in Nov/Dec 1991
- Author: Karl Erik Sveiby
Website for KMNetwork
Teleos
Website for Knowledge Board
Website for Knowledge Management Advantage
Website for Verna Allee
What’s the Big Idea? Creating and Capitalizing on the Best New Management
- Authors: Thomas H. Davenport, Laurence Prusak, and H. James Wilson
- Published by Harvard Business School Press in 2003
- ISBN 1578519314
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Assessing KM Technology Choices
- Authors: Jeff Stemke, Melissie Rumizen
- Published by Knowledge Management Review in 2001
Generation and transfer of knowledge in IT-related SME’s
- Authors: Laura Zapata Cantu, Josep Rialp Criado, and Alex Rialp Criado
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 13 №5 2009
Intranet Journal Website
KMWorld Website
Requirement for Knowledge Management: Business Driving Information Technology
- Author: Loye (Lynn) Ray
- Published by: Journal of Knowledge Management — Vol. 12 №3, 2008
The Evolution of Information Technology at Buckman Laboratories
- Author: Tim Meek
- Published by Melcrum in 1999
- Download article
The Promise of Peerless Platforms
- Author: Steve Barth
- Published by Knowledge Management Magazine in 2001
The Social Life of Information
- Authors: John Seely Brown, Paul Druguid
- Published in 2000
- ISBN 0875847625
Web 2.0 Implications on Knowledge Management
- Author: Moria Levy
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 13 №1 2009
Web 2.0 and the Empowerment of the Knowledge Worker
- Author: Dirk Schneckenberg
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 13 №6 2009
INNOVATION
An innovation perspective of knowledge management in a multinational subsidiary
- Authors: Mirta Amalia and Yanuar Nugroho
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 15 №1 2011
Balancing Act: How to Capture Knowledge Without Killing It
- Authors: John Seely Brown, Paul Druguid
- Published by Harvard Business Review in 2000
Barriers to Innovation
- Author: Colleen Walker
- Published in Paper 360°, January 2007
Creativity, Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
- Author: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- Published by Harper Business in 1997
- ISBN 0060928204
The Innovation Imperative
- Authors: Jacquelyn Danielle McNutt and Dan Cenatempo
- Published in Paper 360°, January 2007
The Innovator’s Dilemma
- Author: Clayton Christensen
The Innovator’s Solution
- Author: Clayton Christensen
Knowledge Effectiveness, Social Context, and Innovation
- Authors: Dimitris Brachos, Konstantinos Kostopoulos, Klas Eric Soderquist, and Gregory Prastacos
- Published by: Journal of Knowledge Management in 2007
Living Networks
- Author: Ross Dawson
- Book
Macro process of knowledge management for continuous innovation
- Authors: Jing Xu, Rémy Houssin, Emmanuel Caillaud, and Mickaël Gardoni
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 14 №4 2010
Overcoming cultural barriers for innovation and knowledge sharing
- Authors: Juan C. Rivera-Vazquez, Lillian V. Ortiz-Fournier, and Felix Rogelio Flores
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 13 №5 2009
Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas
- Author: Edward DeBono
- Published by Harper Business in 1992
- ISBN 0887305660
- Author: Edward DeBono
Strategic Management in the Innovation Economy: Strategic Approaches and Tools for Dynamic Innovation Capabilities
- Authors: Thomas H. Davenport, Marius Leibold, and Sven C. Voelpel
- Published by Wiley in 2006
- ISBN 9783895782633
The Role of Tacit Knowledge in Group Innovation
- Authors: Dorothy Leonard, Sylvia Sensiper
- Published by California Management Review in 1998
The Use of Tacit Knowledge within Innovative Companies: Knowledge Management in Innovative Enterprises
- Authors: Ragna Seidler-de Alwis and Evi Hartmann
- Published by: Journal of Knowledge Management — Vol. 12 №1, 2008
Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation
- Author: Dorothy Leonard-Barton
- Published by Harvard Business School Press in 1995
- ISBN 0875846122
When Sparks Fly
- Authors: Dorothy Leonard, Walter Swap
- Published by Harvard Business School Press in 1999
- ISBN 0875848656
INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL
Reconfiguring the Value Network
- Author: Verna Allee
- Published by Journal of Business Strategy in 2000
The ROI of Human Capital: Measuring the Economic Value of Employee Performance
- Author: Jac Fitz-enz
- ISBN 0814405746
KNOWLEDGE CREATION
Concept of “Ba”: Building a Foundation for Knowledge Creation
- Authors: Ikujiro Nonaka, Noboru Konno
- Published by California Management Review in Spring 1998
Develop Knowledge Activists!
- Authors: Georg von Krogh, Ikujiro Nonaka, Kazuo Ichijo
- Published by European Management Journal in October 1997
Enabling Knowledge Creation
- Authors: Georg von Krogh, Kazuo Ichijo, Ikujiro Nonaka
- Published by Oxford University Press in 2000
- ISBN 0195126165
Facilitating new knowledge creation and obtaining KM maturity
- Authors: Priscilla A. Arling and Mark W.S. Chun
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 15 №2 2011
Knowledge Creation Measurement Methods
- Authors: Rebecca Mitchell, Brendan Boyle
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 14 №1 2010
Mystery of the unknown: revisiting tacit knowledge in the organizational literature
- Authors: Fuat Oğuz and Ayse Elif Sengün
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 15 №3 2011
Reconfiguring the Value Network
- Author: Verna Allee
- Published by Journal of Business Strategy in 2000
The Fallacy of Knowledge Reuse: Building Sustainable Knowledge
- Authors: Alex Bennet and David Bennet
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 12 №5 2008
The Knowledge-Creating Company
- Author: Ikujiro Nonaka
- Published by Harvard Business Review in July 2007
The Knowledge Creating Company
- Authors: Ikujiro Nonaka, Hirotaka Takeuchi
- Published by Oxford University Press in 1995
- ISBN 0195092694
- Download article
LEADERSHIP
Building a Learning Strategy for Leaders
- Author: Dori Digenti
Control Your Own Destiny or Someone Else Will
- Authors: Noel Tichy, Stratford Sherman
- Published by Harper Business in 1994
- ISBN 0887306705
Creative Leadership
- Author: Max De Pree
- Published by Leader to Leader in 2001
In Praise of Followers
- Author: Robert Kelley
- Published by Harvard Business Review in Nov/Dec 1998
Knowledge Sharing in Organisational Contexts: a Motivation-based Perspective
- Authors: Alice Lam, Jean-Paul Lambermont-Ford
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 14 №1 2010
Peter Drucker on the Profession of Management
- Author: Peter Drucker
- Published by Harvard Business School in 1998
- ISBN 0875848362
Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions
- Author: Gary Klein
- Published by MIT Press, February 1999
- ISBN 0262112272
The Ecology of Leadership
- Author: Peter Senge
- Published by: Leader to Leader, Fall 1996
The Influence of Employee Motivation on Knowledge Transfer
- Authors: Natalia Martin Cruz, Victor Martin Perez, Celina Trevilla Cantero
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 13 №6 2009
The Mark of a Winner
- Author: Noel Tichy
- Published by Leader to Leader, Fall 1997
Trust and Betrayal in the Workplace
- Authors: Dennis Reina, Michelle Reina
- Published by Barrett Koehler in 1999
- ISBN 157675071
Website for the Leader to Leader Foundation
Why Leaders Can’t Lead
- Author: Warren Bennis
- Published by Jossey-Bass in 1997
- ISBN 0787909432
MEASUREMENT
Beyond the Digital Divide: a Conceptual Framework for Analyzing Knowledge Societies
- Authors: Ravi S. Sharma, Elaine W. J. Ng, Mathias Dharmawirya and Chu Keong Lee
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 12 №5 2008
Knowledge Creation Measurement Methods
- Authors: Rebecca Mitchell, Brendan Boyle
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 14 №1 2010
Measuring Connectivity at Aventis Pharmaceuticals
- Author: Doug Rush
- Published by Knowledge Management Review in May-June 2002
Measuring Intangible Assets
- Author: Karl Erik Sveiby — 2006
Measuring Social Capital and Knowledge Networks
- Author: Carol Webb
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 12 №5 2008
Measuring the Value of Knowledge Management
- Author: Joanna Goodman
- Published by: Ark Group in 2006
- ISBN: 0955266688
Solving the Knowledge-value Equation (Part One)
- Author: Mark Clare
- Published by Knowledge Management Review in 2002
The Correlation Between Organizational Culture and Knowledge Conversion on Corporate Performance
- Author: Shu-Mei Tseng
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 14 №2 2010
The Effect of Tacit Knowledge on Firm Performance
- Author: Harold Harlow
- Published by: Journal of Knowledge Management — Vol. 12 №1, 2008
The New Organizational Wealth: Managing & Measuring Knowledge-Based Assets
- Author: Karl Erik Sveiby
- Published by Berrett-Koehler in 1997
- ISBN 1576750140
NETWORKS
It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know: Work in the Information Age
- Authors: Bonnie Nardi, Steve Whittaker, Heinrich Schwarz
- Published by First Monday
The Future of Knowledge
- Author: Verna Allee
- Published by Butterworth-Heinemann in 2002
The People Who Make Organizations Go — Or Stop
- Authors: Rob Cross, Laurence Prusak
- Published by Harvard Business Review in 2002
ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
Action Science: Concepts, Methods, and Skills for Research and Intervention
- Authors: Chris Argyris, Robert Putnam, Diana McLain Smith
- Action Design
Balancing Act: How to Capture Knowledge Without Killing It
- Authors: John Seely Brown, Paul Dugid
- Published by Harvard Business Review in 2000
Buckman Laboratories: Customer Case Study
Capturing Value From Knowledge Assets
- David J. Tecce
- Published by California Management Review in Spring 1998
Common Knowledge: How Companies Thrive by Sharing What They Know
- Author: Nancy M. Dixon
- Published by Harvard Business School Press in 2000
- ISBN 0875849040
Communities of Practice
- Author: Etienne Wenger
- Published by Cambridge University Press in 1998
- ISBN 0521430178
Concept of “Ba”: Building a Foundation for Knowledge Creation
- Authors: Ikujiro Nonaka, Noboru Konno
- Published by California Management Review in Spring 1998
Develop Knowledge Activists!
- Authors: Georg von Krogh, Ikujiro Nonaka, Kazuo Ichijo
- Published by European Management Journal in October 1997
Foundations of Action Design
- Author: Robert Putnam
- Action Design
Getting It Right the Second Time
- Authors: Gabriel Szulanski, Sidney Winter
- Published by Harvard Business Review in 2002
Guidelines for Writing a Case
Learning Ecology, Communities, and Networks
- Author: George Siemens
- Published by Elearnspace in 2003
Learning to Fly
- Authors: Chris Collison, Geoff Parcell
- ISBN 184112124X
On Organizational Learning
- Author: Chris Argyris
- Published by Blackwell Publishers in 1994
- ISBN 1557866635
The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook
- Authors: Peter Senge, Charlotte Roberts, Rick Ross, Bryan Smith, Art Kleiner
- Published by Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. in 1994
The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization
- Author: Peter Senge
- Published by Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. in 1990
- ISBN 0385260954
The Living Company
- Author: Arie DeGeus
- Published by Harvard Business School Press in 1997
- ISBN 087584782X
PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Achieving Success Through Social Capital: Tapping Hidden Resources in Your Personal and Business Networks
- Author: Wayne Baker
- ISBN 0787953091
Managing Knowledge Means Managing Oneself
- Author: Peter Drucker
Social Networking in Academia
- Author: Valdis Krebs
- The Social Graph of a Famous Mathematician
REFERENCE
Global Ranking of Knowledge Management and Intellectual Capital Academic Journals
- Authors: Alexander Serenko and Nick Bontis
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 13 №1 2009
Knowledge Communication and Translation — a Knowledge Transfer Model
- Authors: Champika Liyanage, Taha Elhag, Tabarak Ballal and Qiuping Li
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 13 №3 2009
Knowledge Management Fieldbook
- Authors: Wendi Bukowitz, Ruth Williams
- Published by Prentice Hall in 1999
- ISBN 0273638823
Knowledge Management
- Author: Hubert Saint Onge
- Toolkit
Website for Knowledge Board
SOCIAL CAPITAL
Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital
- Author: Robert D. Putnam
- Published by Journal of Social Democracy in 1995
It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know: Work in the Information Age
- Authors: Bonnie Nardi, Steve Whittaker, Heinrich Schwarz
- Published by First Monday
Optimal Knowledge Transfer Methods: a Generation X Perspective
- Author: Debby McNichols
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 14 №1 2010
What is Social Capital?
SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS
An Introduction to Social Network Analysis
- Author: Valdis Krebs
What is Organizational Network Analysis?
- Author: Rob Cross
Leveraging Informal Networks in Knowledge Management
- Authors: Maria Nirmala and Madhava Vemuri
- Published by Journal of Knowledge Management in Vol. 13 №3 2009
The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations
- Authors: Rob Cross, Andrew Parker
- Published by Harvard Business School Press in 2004
- ISBN 1591392705
Social Networking in Academia
- Author: Valdis Krebs
- The Social Graph of a Famous Mathematician
STORYTELLING
The Four Truths of the Storyteller
- Author: Peter Guber
- Published by Harvard Business Review, December 2007
Australian Storytelling Guild
- Author: Thomas Erickson
Storytelling in Organizations
- Authors: Steve Denning, John Seely Brown, Larry Prusak, Kataline Groh
- Published by Elsevier in June 2004
The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative
- Author: Steve Denning
- Published by Jossey Bass in April 2005
The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations
- Author: Stephen Denning
- Published by Butterworth Heinemann in 2000
- ISBN 0750673559
The Story Factor
- Author: Annette Simmons
- Published by Perseus Publishing in 2000
- ISBN 0738203696
Three Metaphors, Two Stories and a Picture: How to Build Common Understanding to KM Through Metaphor
- Author: David Snowden
- Published by Knowledge Management Review in Mar/Apr 1999
VIRTUAL TEAMS
- Authors: Stevie Peterson, Velda Stohr
Checklist for Designing Online Community Events
Mastering Virtual Teams: Strategies, Tools, and Techniques that Succeed
- Authors: Deborah Duarte, Nancy Snyder
- Published by Jossey-Bass in 2000
- ISBN 0787955892